onychicks
Hatching
- Jan 28, 2016
- 4
- 0
- 9
Hi everyone, thought I'd share my experience. I asked advice a long while back as my two hens had started brooding and I didn't know what to do. This was my question:
"Hi everyone, I'm new to looking after hens. I have three - one ex-battery hen (feather) and two smaller Pekin hens. I've had the little ones for about 3 months and for the last 3 weeks they have been holed up in their nest box refusing to move. I've looked through the threads here and now realise they are brooding. They haven't laid eggs for weeks and either sit on Feathers large white ones or just without eggs. Today I tried to lock them out of their nesting area but they got SO stressed out and anxious, pacing up and down, that I broke and let them back in! Will this broodiness eventually pass naturally? Or do I have to do what has been suggested and lock them out or put them in a cage temporarily? Thanks
" https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1111129/brooding-will-it-pass-by-itself#post_17109978
And I got advice about putting them in a raised cage to snap them out of it.
However, I didn't take the advice as I just felt too bad about doing that! So I just let them be and waited to see what would happen.
n.b. while brooding - I took them out of their brooding spot every day and made sure they had food and water and a little walk around but after 5 minutes they would go back to brooding (and not laying eggs).
It took 4 months (summer) and I'd pretty much given up on them every laying an egg again. But one day, boom, they woke up from their slumber and started walking around again. And after a week, they were back laying eggs. It's now been a month without a sign of brooding behaviour.
So, if you have the patience to wait, I've realised brooding passes by itself.
"Hi everyone, I'm new to looking after hens. I have three - one ex-battery hen (feather) and two smaller Pekin hens. I've had the little ones for about 3 months and for the last 3 weeks they have been holed up in their nest box refusing to move. I've looked through the threads here and now realise they are brooding. They haven't laid eggs for weeks and either sit on Feathers large white ones or just without eggs. Today I tried to lock them out of their nesting area but they got SO stressed out and anxious, pacing up and down, that I broke and let them back in! Will this broodiness eventually pass naturally? Or do I have to do what has been suggested and lock them out or put them in a cage temporarily? Thanks
" https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1111129/brooding-will-it-pass-by-itself#post_17109978And I got advice about putting them in a raised cage to snap them out of it.
However, I didn't take the advice as I just felt too bad about doing that! So I just let them be and waited to see what would happen.
n.b. while brooding - I took them out of their brooding spot every day and made sure they had food and water and a little walk around but after 5 minutes they would go back to brooding (and not laying eggs).
It took 4 months (summer) and I'd pretty much given up on them every laying an egg again. But one day, boom, they woke up from their slumber and started walking around again. And after a week, they were back laying eggs. It's now been a month without a sign of brooding behaviour.
So, if you have the patience to wait, I've realised brooding passes by itself.
